Throughout 2025 we will be interviewing people in the legal tech/ops space from around the world. In this first interview of the year, Marc May spoke with Tanisha Minev, Senior Legal Counsel at Yoco about what sparked her interest in legal ops, what the Dutch legal tech scene is like, what was her best/worst project and what her predictions are for 2025.
- Tanisha, thanks for joining me. Could you let me know what you currently do for work?
I’m currently a Senior Legal Counsel at Yoco, a FinTech company based in South Africa. Yoco is a payments provider operating under a third-party processor license, transitioning from a start-up to a scale-up. In my role, I lead the corporate and commercial legal portfolio while also focusing on legal operations to optimize how we work as a team.
When I joined the company 2.5 years ago, the legal function was brand new, and our mission was to build a scalable, efficient legal framework to support Yoco’s growth. A significant part of my role involves designing and implementing processes and workflows that enable the legal team to serve the business more effectively and efficiently. This dual focus on legal counsel and operational excellence allows me to contribute to Yoco’s success in a meaningful way.
- What sparked your interest in legal operations?
My interest in legal operations developed organically, even before the term was widely recognised. Early in my career, I was naturally drawn to optimising workflows and simplifying repetitive tasks. After earning my LLB, my journey into the legal field was unconventional. When my initial traineeship ended unexpectedly due to the firm closing, I spent three years working in administrative-heavy roles at a finance house and a bank. In those roles, I frequently identified inefficiencies and developed solutions, such as creating email templates for RFP reviews and standardising processes to reduce administrative burdens.
When I qualified and moved into practice—later transitioning in-house—I carried this mindset with me, constantly seeking ways to improve workflows. Whether it was documenting knowledge, creating clause banks, or developing playbooks, I found that I had a knack for and genuinely enjoyed enhancing operational efficiency, sometimes more than the legal work itself.
When I discovered the concept of Legal Ops and organisations like CLOC, their principles resonated deeply with me. They provided a framework for the kind of work I was already passionate about. This realisation inspired me to focus more intentionally on leveraging these principles to enhance my team’s efficiency and overall effectiveness. Legal operations has not only aligned with my natural strengths but also become an area where I feel I can make a meaningful impact.
- You’re based in Amsterdam – what is the legal tech/ops scene like there?
The legal tech and operations scene in Amsterdam is dynamic and growing rapidly, driven by the city’s position as a hub for international businesses, tech innovation, and start-ups. The legal industry places a strong emphasis on digital transformation and efficiency, which aligns well with the principles of legal operations. Many companies are adopting legal tech tools for contract management, document automation, and workflow optimisation, and there’s a vibrant community of legal tech startups and events fostering collaboration and innovation.
What I find particularly exciting is how Amsterdam’s ecosystem encourages cross-functional collaboration between legal teams, operations professionals, and technologists. It’s a fertile ground for experimenting with and implementing legal ops strategies. While I’m newer to the scene here, I see significant parallels with my work in South Africa, particularly around building scalable and efficient legal processes. I’m looking forward to exploring and contributing to this forward-thinking community.
- In the chapter you wrote in Legal Operations in the Age of AI and Data you talked about the Lean philosophy – do you think all lawyers should understand concepts like this as they go through training?
Absolutely! I think as lawyers, we are naturally trained in the opposite of being lean – in that more is more. But instead I believe that understanding concepts like Lean philosophy should be an integral part of legal training. Lean principles, which focus on maximising value and minimising waste, are highly relevant to the practice of law. Lawyers often face pressure to deliver quality work efficiently, and having a mindset geared toward process improvement can make a significant difference in how legal services are delivered.
In my chapter, I emphasised how Lean thinking encourages lawyers to question existing processes, identify inefficiencies, and find innovative ways to optimise workflows. For example, concepts like value stream mapping can help lawyers better understand what truly matters to their clients and how to align their efforts with those priorities.
While technical legal skills remain essential, the future of legal practice increasingly demands operational excellence. By incorporating Lean and similar methodologies (like the T-shaped Lawyer by Peter Connor) into training, we can equip the next generation of lawyers with the tools to adapt to a rapidly evolving industry, collaborate more effectively, and add greater value to their organisations.
- Which legal ops project did you enjoy working on the most?
One of the legal ops projects I enjoyed most was standardising documents and contracts for our sales and partnerships teams, allowing them to use our CLM as a self-service automation tool. The goal was to empower the business to handle routine, low-risk agreements efficiently while freeing up the legal team to focus on more strategic work.
The project involved collaborating closely with stakeholders to understand their pain points, identifying key contract types that could be standardised, and using our CLM to implement the solution. I also developed training materials and conducted workshops to ensure smooth adoption across the teams.
What made this project particularly rewarding was seeing the tangible impact it had. Not only did it reduce turnaround times and enhance team productivity, but it also fostered a stronger relationship between legal and the broader business. It’s gratifying to know that a solution you create can fundamentally improve the way teams work together. Plus, it aligned perfectly with my passion for leveraging legal operations to drive efficiency and deliver value.
A close runner-up to this was the project to implement a matter management system for our legal team, with the end goal to centralise and streamline how we received requests (intake) and tracked work. This project took me back to the grass-roots – instead of buying an (expensive) off-the-shelf solution that wasn’t going to be a great fit considering the maturity and needs of the organisation, we looked at tools we were already using in the business and how we could leverage those with integrations. I spoke to internal engineers and the tech team, and with their help, I built a workflow in Slack as our intake form with an integration to Notion automating our task board and reporting. It ended up being hugely successful, and it was actually really easy to implement, with zero additional costs, which was a big bonus.
- ..and which one did you learn the most from?
The project I learned the most from was implementing a new contract lifecycle management (CLM) system. Our existing CLM was primarily a contract repository—functioning more like Dropbox or Google Drive—and only accessible to the Legal team. It was costly and underutilised, so we decided to go to market for a new solution. However, we quickly realiSed that the tools we were exploring were far too advanced and expensive for where we were in our journey. This forced us to return to the drawing board and reassess our actual needs.
The main pain point we aimed to solve was the lack of centralised contract management, which had led to recurring issues like web services automatically renewing without review—often for tools that were no longer needed. This resulted in unnecessary costs that we needed to control.
This journey taught me two invaluable lessons: the importance of focusing on core requirements when sourcing tools to ensure that it is a good fit and the critical role of change management in driving adoption, to help ensure that implementation will be successful.
Initially, I underestimated the complexity of aligning the various workflows and expectations of different teams. Each department had unique ways of interacting with Legal, and it became clear that understanding our pain points and most important requirements was essential for narrowing the search to a solution that worked for everyone.
Another key takeaway was the importance of clearly communicating the “why” behind the change. Framing the project as a way to make everyone’s work easier and delivering quick wins early on helped us secure buy-in and drive adoption.
Ultimately, this experience deepened my understanding of how to balance technology, people, and processes. It reinforced that legal ops is about more than implementing tools—it’s about fostering cultural shifts, building trust, and creating systems that truly support the business. These aspects, while challenging, are the most rewarding parts of the role.
- Finally, do you have any predictions for legal ops/tech in 2025?
In 2025, I anticipate several key trends shaping the legal operations and technology landscape:
- Increased Adoption of AI and Automation
Of course, I couldn’t address this question without addressing the growth and adoption of AI. Generative AI is already transforming how we draft, review, and manage legal documents, and I expect its use to become even more sophisticated in 2025. Legal teams will increasingly rely on AI tools not just for efficiency but also for insights—such as predictive analytics for litigation risks or contract performance. However, the focus will shift toward ensuring ethical AI use and integrating human oversight into these processes.
- Focus on Interoperability and Integration
As legal tech stacks grow, there will be a stronger push for tools that seamlessly integrate with other business systems like CRMs, ERPs, and HR platforms. This will help legal teams break out of operational silos and collaborate more effectively across their organisations.
- Emphasis on Data-Driven Decision-Making
Legal teams will prioritise harnessing their data to demonstrate value and influence strategy. Metrics like turnaround times, risk assessments, and cost savings will play a larger role in how legal departments are evaluated and contribute to the business.
- Rise of “Legal Design Thinking”
There will be more emphasis on user-centric solutions, whether it’s building intuitive self-service tools or crafting legal documents that are easier for non-lawyers to understand. This will bridge the gap between legal teams and the business, fostering trust and efficiency.
- Global Expansion of Legal Ops Standards
Organisations like CLOC and the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) will drive greater standardisation across the legal operations discipline, making it easier for teams to adopt best practices and measure success. This will also encourage smaller legal departments to embrace legal ops, democratising access to these principles.
Overall, I see 2025 as a tipping point where legal operations will move from being a “nice-to-have” function to a critical, strategic driver of business success. Those who embrace this evolution early will have a significant competitive advantage.
